Mobile

SAP's Third Iteration Mobile Developer Play

By Adrian Bridgwater, May 24, 2014

An open standards-based architecture that embraces a "bring-your-own-tools" (BYOT)

As we know, SAP bought Sybase back in 2010 and its mobile software application development strategy kicked into gear from that point. This week the firm releases its SAP Mobile Platform 3.0, a product play described as a tool for developers based upon a "full-spectrum" open standards-based platform architecture and one common software development kit (SDK).

"Mobile is all about the user experience and its ubiquity — it's like the air we breathe, it's everywhere," said Rick Costanzo, executive vice president and general manager of global mobility solutions, SAP. "We have been on a long, steady climb in mobile for more than 15 years, making the latest release of SAP Mobile Platform very special as it embodies the best innovations and lessons learned along the way in our journey."

With this latest release, SAP would like us to agree that it "completes the full unification" of its historically proven mobile app development platform frameworks. It comes with an open standards-based architecture that embraces a "bring-your-own-tools" (BYOT) strategy through integration with third-party development tools. It uses Open Data (OData) Protocol APIs and the open-source Apache Cordova software, which (so says SAP) makes it far more attractive for developers and significantly lowers TCO for the customer.

"While there are many new vendors in the enterprise mobility space contributing to customer choice, they also introduce unwanted complexity," said Dirk Boessmann, senior vice president, mobile development, SAP. "SAP has long been a leader in the mobile industry and we now see the need to simplify for the customer. SAP Mobile Platform 3.0 makes it easy to build and secure mobile apps for an amazing user experience, while providing unparalleled deployment flexibility. Mobile is not a choice but an imperative and I am proud to say that we are ushering in the next generation of mobile."

To maximize end-user productivity through mobile apps, SAP customers may soon be able to access existing and custom-built SAP Fiori apps through SAP Mobile Platform 3.0 via the SDK or the SAP Fiori Client mobile app. Additionally, updated versions of SAP Work Manager, SAP Inventory Manager, and SAP CRM Service Manager mobile apps are planned to be available soon on the SAP Mobile Platform 3.0.

"Through the power of the new SAP Mobile Platform, SAP Work Manager 6.1 is intended to have added functionality, including geographic information system (GIS) and 3-D visualization, enterprise resource planning (ERP) customer service, and crew management integration. In SAP Inventory Manager 4.0, support is planned to be added for Android, iOS, and Windows 8 to match the native device and offline support seen in SAP Work Manager and SAP CRM Service Manager. By leveraging the new open UI SDK for SAP Mobile Platform, complex business processes are aimed at getting simplified user experiences, such as allowing users to interact with Esri mobile GIS within SAP Work Manager," said the company.

A free trial of SAP Mobile Platform 3.0 is available on SAP Community Network in the developer center for SAP Mobile Platform.

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